Valerie Davis Raskin, coauthor of This Isn’t What I Expected
Topic: Overcoming postpartum depressionIssues: Symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD) and how it’s different than “baby blues”; dealing with panic attacks, stress overload, and obsessive urges; breaking the cycle of negative thinking; coping with the loss of self-esteem, when to get help; the dad’s role in support a new mom suffering from PPD

[amazon asin=0761162410&template=thumbleft&chan=default]Elizabeth Fishel, coauthor of When Will My Grown-Up Kid Grow Up?
Topic: Loving and understanding your emerging adult.Issues: The zigzagging road to adulthood; the college years; the boomerang kid; the bank of mom and dad; when things go wrong; having–and enforcing–expectations; emerging at last.

[amazon asin=B001G8WQU2&template=thumbleft&chan=default]Jodi Mindell, author of Sleep Deprived No More. Topic: Helping you and your baby sleep through the night, from pregnancy to early motherhoodIssues: Determining how much sleep your body needs; catching up on lost sleep; getting babies to sleep through the night; understanding sleep problems faced by school-age kids, tweens, and teens.

Dr. Will Courtenay, a psychotherapist and creator ofwww.saddaddy.com Topic: Even new dads get the blues.Issues: What is paternal post partum depression? How big a problem is it? What are the causes? When men can do to prevent and/or treat it?

Dear Mr. Dad: My daughter is five days old and today I had to go back to work. All day, I’ve felt an impending sadness that only gets worse. All I want is to be home with my family. I have to go to work and be responsible, but I can’t shake this horrible sadness.

A: Up to 85 percent of new moms go through what’s called the “baby blues”—feelings of sadness and depression that last for a few days or weeks and then slowly fade. It sounds like you’re going through something very similar. Plus, you’ve slammed right into one of the biggest challenges today’s fathers face: how to effectively balance their work and family lives.[Read more…]

A few weeks ago I did a post about how depressed new moms are less likely to breastfeed than less-depressed women. A lot of studies show that breastfed babies do better in a variety of areas–lower risk of obesity, ear infections, and pneumonia, stronger immune system, and even increased IQ. But even though depression affects breastfeeding, which in turn affects babies’ health, it’s not accurate to say that depression is responsible for poorer outcomes.

So here’s another interesting study that links mothers’ depression with their children’s health–in this case, if their height. In a just-published study, children of moms who were depressed nine months after giving birth were more likely to be short at age three and beyond than kids whose mothers were not depressed.

Although this article from the Guardian talks mostly about reaction in the UK to a study showing that new dads may get postpartum depression, I’ve come across many of the Neanderthal attitudes expressed here in my work with fathers in the U.S.

What is your response to learning that there is a treatable but often undiagnosed medical condition that could mean that a baby is significantly more likely to require medical intervention for speech and language development? What if research had found the same condition led to the child being vastly more likely to develop behavioural problems and peer relationship problems? What if it could be affecting one in 30 newborn babies, or about 25,000 children every year in the UK alone, while minimal efforts are made to intervene?

Postpartum adjustment for Dad

First-time fathers have fears and anxieties, too. Ways to ease the stress and help Dad bond with the new baby.

A very nice article featuring…. me!

Denise YearianSouth Florida Parenting8:00 a.m. EDT, March 12, 2012

When a child is born, much emphasis is placed on helping the new mother and baby adjust. But they aren’t the only ones undergoing change. Most first-time fathers experience stress because of sleep deprivation, change in routines and their own apprehensions about parenting.

“There are a myriad of emotions that come with being a new father,” says Armin Brott, author of multiple books and one DVD on fatherhood. “Most often it’s a feeling of pride and excitement. At the same time there can be apprehensions — ‘Will I be a good father?’ ‘Can we afford this?’ ‘How is this going to change our lives?’”